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SSA Governor Starts New Job

Kathryn Roessel Begins First Term Amid Aggressive Selectmen's Campaign to Overthrow Her With Political Maneuvers

By JULIA WELLS

In a quiet ceremony on the second floor of the Edgartown courthouse
yesterday, Kathryn A. Roessel was sworn in as the new Vineyard Steamship
Authority governor.

The appointment came amid a fresh wave of back-corridor politics,
both on the Vineyard and on Beacon Hill, aimed at some kind of coup to
overthrow Ms. Roessel by fast-tracking a piece of stalled legislation
that would overhaul the SSA board of governors.

After a 4-3 vote by the Dukes County Commission last month to
appoint Ms. Roessel over incumbent boat line governor J.B. Riggs Parker,
a group of Vineyard selectmen hastily adopted a resolution requesting
legislation to change the way the boat line governor is appointed. The
selectmen want to create a new appointing authority made up of one
selectman from each town and one county commissioner.

The selectmen want their legislation tacked onto what is known as
the Kass legislation - pending legislation that grew out of a
state task force appointed last year to study boat line issues. Headed
by retired state appeals court judge Rudolph Kass, the task force
recommended expanding the boat line's board of governors by adding
voting seats for New Bedford and Barnstable.

This week, two surprise amendments to the legislation were unveiled.
The new amendments would:

* Create a nonvoting seat on the SSA board for New Bedford that
would automatically become a voting seat after two years.

* Increase the share borne by the Vineyard and Nantucket of any
boat line deficit, and decrease the share of Falmouth, New Bedford and
Barnstable. The pending legislation calls for the deficit share (and
corresponding weighted vote) to be 30 per cent for the Vineyard, 25 per
cent for Nantucket and 15 per cent apiece for the other three towns.
Under the new proposal the Vineyard share would be 40 per cent,
Nantucket would be 30 per cent and the other three communities would
have their shares reduced to 10 per cent each.

The two new amendments were not included in the resolution adopted
by selectmen in five of the six Vineyard towns last month, nor have they
been the subject of any public discussion on the Island. The amendments
did not come up during a discussion about SSA affairs at a meeting of
the All-Island Selectmen's Association this week.

But a small group of Vineyard officials, apparently acting
unilaterally and in the absence of any public process, is now urging the
legislature to adopt all three amendments.

"Enclosed for your consideration is a copy of the legislation
that the overwhelming majority of the selectmen and selectwomen of
Martha's Vineyard request be adopted as soon as possible,"
wrote Oak Bluffs selectman Todd Rebello in a letter sent to Rep. Joseph
Sullivan and Sen. Robert Havern, co-chairmen of the Joint Committee on
Transportation. The letter was faxed to Mr. Havern and Mr. Sullivan on
Dec. 31.

"We respectfully ask that you support the amended version
faxed to you by selectman Todd Rebello on our behalf," wrote West
Tisbury selectman Cynthia Mitchell in a letter to Cape and Islands Rep.
Eric T. Turkington on Wednesday this week. The letter was written on
town stationery and signed by Mrs. Mitchell alone, although the pronoun
reference in the letter is repeatedly plural.

"We ask that you do not, under any circumstances, let debate
over minor adjustments to the voting and deficit apportionment delay or
imperil action on this bill," Mrs. Mitchell wrote to Mr.
Turkington. Mrs. Mitchell also wrote that the amendments are
"consistent with the formal recommendations of our All-Island
Selectmen's Association, including a joint recommendation with the
Nantucket selectmen."

The selectmen's association and the Nantucket selectmen voted
last summer to support the Kass legislation but with the express caveat
that they did not support a voting seat for New Bedford. But Mr. Rebello
said he sees no conflict between the amendments and the votes taken by
the selectmen.

"This very much supports the past votes of the all-Island
selectmen," he said.

Mr. Rebello also said public discussion about the new amendments was
not necessary.

"This was a consensus," he said. "I had
conversations with Mrs. Mitchell, and pretty much over the last two
weeks I have spoken to 14 or 15 different Island elected officials about
this.

"I believe if you were to get on the phone and call 14 or 15
people who signed the resolution, they would have knowledge of those
amendments," he added.

There was another view.

"The action of a group of selectmen urging legislation that
increases the Island's financial liability of the Steamship
Authority is beyond the pale. And what is really outrageous is that this
is being pursued without the benefit of any public process
whatsoever," said Dukes County commissioner Robert Sawyer.

"It appears to me, based on last night's meeting of the
All-Island Selectmen's Association, that some members are not
putting all their cards on the table so that everyone knows exactly what
is going on - and I think that is reprehensible," said John
Alley, a West Tisbury selectman and Dukes County commissioner.

"I am totally disappointed in the actions of the officials on
our Island. There has been no regard for the public and the public has
had no input on this," said Roger Wey, an Oak Bluffs selectman and
Dukes County commissioner.

Mr. Rebello said the proposed change in the deficit share came out
of Falmouth. "This basically came about through concerns of our
partners being Falmouth because Falmouth would have to also take on the
responsibility of 15 per cent - and that wasn't necessarily
what they were looking for," he said.

He also gave credit to Judge Kass.

"I believe that the amendments were assisted by Judge
Kass," said Mr. Rebello. The proposed changes faxed by Mr. Rebello
to the state legislature bore the fax mark of the state appeals court,
but Mr. Rebello said he had not been in contact with Judge Kass; he said
he received the material from Mrs. Mitchell.

"I have never spoken personally with Judge Kass, but other
selectmen have - you could feel free to call Cindy Mitchell and
she would tell you about it," he said.

Reached at his office in Boston yesterday, Judge Kass said Mrs.
Mitchell was his only contact on the Vineyard.

"I understand them to reflect the will of the Martha's
Vineyard selectmen and I understand them to reflect the will of the
Falmouth selectmen and the Barnstable selectmen," Judge Kass said
of the amendments.

The judge said he supports the amendments but they did not come from
him.

"They are the Martha's Vineyard, Falmouth, New Bedford
amendments - that's what they are and that's fine, we
certainly accept those," he said.

Judge Kass said his other contacts included some members of the Cape
Cod Transit Task force and New Bedford city solicitor George Leontire.

Mr. Kass said he was recently recalled to active status on the state
appeals court, so his involvement with the pending legislation will now
end.

The selectmen's association meeting this week was marked by an
uneven discussion about boat line affairs.

The unscheduled discussion was kicked off by Tisbury selectman Tom
Pachico, who appealed to the group to "put the cards on the
table" and find some consensus.

Chilmark selectman Warren Doty agreed. "We are a house
divided," he said. "The Island has no consensus; there is a
lot of debate . . . . Here we are, our candidate we supported is out and
a new one is in. Can we find a way to get ourselves together?"

Others at the meeting reflected some of the red-hot anger that has
surfaced in recent weeks, much of it around the 4-3 vote to replace Mr.
Parker.

"Have you neglected to realize that there is legislation that
can change the SSA now?" bristled county commissioner Leonard
Jason Jr.

Meanwhile, yesterday Ms. Roessel, a retired attorney, had her first
official day as the new Vineyard boat line governor, after she was sworn
in by Dukes County superior court clerk Joseph E. Sollitto Jr.

In brief remarks, Ms. Roessel said she was ready to tackle the job.
"This is a very important job for the people of Martha's
Vineyard," she said, adding:

"I plan to put all my energy into understanding the job and
doing it to the very best of my ability. I would also like to make it
clear that I am not taking any of the actions of the selectmen's
resolution personally at all, and I am looking forward to being able to
forge a good working relationship with all of the public officials on
the Island."

But once the news surfaced about the new amendments to the Kass
legislation, Ms. Roessel did not shy from comment.

"I am opposed to these surprise amendments to the Kass
legislation which not only give New Bedford a voting seat but also raise
the proportion of any Steamship Authority deficit which the Vineyard
will pay - and I don't believe the people of this Island
will support this, when they find out about it," she said.